From the perspective of the Russian judicial system, Jehovah’s Witnesses are more dangerous than any other religious group. More than 140 prisoners were sentenced to more than eight years.
As of December 16, 2024, since the beginning of the year, Russian security forces At least 96 searches were conducted at the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses. — In Crimea, 17 is the highest figure. The total number of raids since the 2017 ban reached 2,157..
During 2024, Forty-one people are now defendants in the new criminal case.Among them 19 people have suffered various forms of detention, 15 of whom are still incarcerated. last yearCriminal proceedings were initiated against 100 believers.
116 believers were sentenced. Of them, 43 (37%) were sentenced to prison. (What’s noteworthy is that This year, 9 people were dispatched. forced labor as punishment). Twenty-four people (or nearly 56% of those sentenced to prison) were sentenced to more than five years.
Since 2017, 842 people have already been indicted.; Of these, 450 were detained for at least one day. There are currently 147 prisoners of conscience in prison, either already convicted or awaiting sentencing.. Of the 27 prisoners released from the colony, eight were released this year. Although they have served their sentences, they continue to suffer from additional restrictions imposed by the court, which can last up to eight years or more.
“The cumulative number and severity of custodial sentences are increasing. To put it simply, there have been fewer imprisonments this year, but they have been more harshly imprisoned,” Jaroslav Cybulski, head of the Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Europe, commented on the statistics.
In 2024, a court handed down record sentences for three of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Khabarovsk residents Nikolai Polevodov, Vitaly Chuk, and Stanislav Kim received 8 years and 6 months, 8 years and 4 months, and 8 years and 2 months in the penal colony, respectively..
About three months later, an appeals court changed the sentence from prison to probation. therefore, The longest term was given in 2024. To Alexander Chagan From Tolyatti – 8 years in the penal colony. In total, six believers have been sentenced to such harsh sentences since 2017.
During the seven years of mass persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the number of sentenced people reached 543, and 186 believers were imprisoned. Almost 61% (113) of these received tenures of five years or more.
In 13 Russian regions, the average prison sentence is more than six years. This is especially true in the southern regions: Astrakhan, Rostov, Volgograd regions, Crimea and Sevastopol.
For comparison: According to official statistics from the Judiciary of the Supreme Court of Russia in 2023, of the 1297 people convicted of intentional grievous bodily harm, only 0.85% (11 people) were sentenced to prison terms of 5 to 8 years. . Most were sentenced to two to three years in prison.
From the perspective of the Russian judicial system, Jehovah’s Witnesses seem more dangerous than those who beat people to the point of disability.
This was confirmed in a recent report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) titled “The Religious Freedom Challenge of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Sentences for Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to become more stringent. In June 2024, the Khabarovsk court sentenced Nikolai Polevodov to 8 years and 6 months in prison, Vitaliy Zuk to 8 years and 4 months in prison, and Stanislav Kim to 8 years and 2 months in prison, exceeding the personal maximum of 8 years in prison. Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Other punishments for Jehovah’s Witnesses include fines and forced labor. In March 2024, the Teikovo Court fined four Jehovah’s Witnesses a total of 3.45 million rubles ($37,048) for their religious activities. And in January 2024, the Tolyatti court sentenced Sona Olopova to two years of forced labor for holding a religious meeting.”
At the same time, hundreds of trials of Jehovah’s Witnesses accused of extremism have not confirmed a single fact about the extremist activities of their believers.
international support
In the summer of 2024 European Court of Human Rights A ruling was made in favor of 16 Jehovah’s Witnesses who had been illegally searched, arrested, and convicted in Russia because of their religion. Although Russia withdrew from the European Convention on Human Rights in 2022, the Russian Federation is still obliged to pay its allocated compensation to believers.
October 24, 2023, UN Human Rights Commission Issued two opinions in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses regarding the ruling to liquidate the Local Religious Organizations (LROs) of Avinsk and Elista. In Russia, this ruling set a precedent for the beginning of religious persecution, with former Avinsk LRO member Aleksandr Ivshin serving time in a penal colony for his faith.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee emphasizes that the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses do not contain any content that incites violence or incites hatred. In both cases, Russia violated Jehovah’s Witnesses’ rights to “freedom of thought, conscience and religion” and “freedom of assembly” (Articles 18.1 and 22.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights).
The committee ordered Russia to reconsider its ban decision and “take all necessary measures to prevent similar violations from occurring in the future.” Hearings were held in Russia on the issue in 2024, but the commission’s orders were never implemented. Moreover, after the publication of the opinion of the Human Rights Committee on the liquidation of religious groups in Abinsk, local security forces opened a criminal case against Valeriy Baylo, then 66 years old, for his participation in the activities of the Abinsk LRO. The court sentenced the believer to two years and six months in a penal colony. He is currently in custody awaiting the appeal court’s decision.
What is noteworthy is that very few media outlets in Europe reflect such religious oppression, and groups hostile to Jehovah’s Witnesses, while pretending to defend human rights, turn a blind eye to the persecution of the Putin regime.
